Terror of tornadoes in South hits home

Friday

Massive tornados swept across several southeastern states Wednesday, devastating homes and communities. As of Thursday evening, the death toll stood at around 280 people.

Calkins Media spoke with individuals who watched the storm unfold in front of their eyes - from inside and out.

THERE

The sky over western Alabama was dotted with big, puffy white clouds the morning after the storm.

Sarah Kinley, 34, a native of Cranberry Township, said the weather was beautiful and cool Thursday, as she and her family shopped at a grocery near her home in Scottsboro, Ala.

Around 5 p.m. Wednesday, Kinley and her three children - Konor, 7; Zylia, 6; and Zoltaire, 1 - sought shelter in a closet under the stairs in their home, while tornadoes ripped through the nearby city of Huntsville and the surrounding area.

"We had probably pea-sized hail, maybe a little bigger; and real strong winds around 50 to 60 miles per hour," she said. "There were several tornadoes, but the closest was probably about 6 miles away or so. Close enough."

Kinley and the children were safe, but the stay-at-home mom said she worried about her husband, Todd, who had to find shelter at a friend's house on his way home from his job in Huntsville.

"It was kind of scary, because the phones and everything were not working," she said. "I was thinking, 'It's been about 30 minutes, and I haven't heard anything from my husband.' I didn't know for probably a good hour where he was."

She also worried about her sister Melissa, who lives in northwestern Alabama, when she saw a tornado had gone through the town Melissa was in.

"I texted (Melissa) to tell her that there was a tornado on the ground where she was traveling," Kinley said Thursday morning, "But I didn't know if she got home until just like an hour ago."

HERE

"They showed the tornado literally on the ground behind the stadium, and then the phone went dead," said Cheryl Tucker.

The Chippewa Township mother watched the storm system move on the television screen as her daughter Candace, a freshman at the University of Alabama, screamed into the phone when she saw the approaching tornado around 5:15 p.m. Wednesday. Candace, who was taking shelter in her dorm room on the Tuscaloosa campus, said she looked out the window and saw the funnel cloud touch down.